Sunday, February 24, 2013

Happy Sunday

Attended Church this morning.

Moved some furniture around in the afternoon.

CL meeting from 2.30pm

The Slight Edge - Success is not a random accident. It's not about taking the quantum leap. There are many many small steps taken before you reach success. No success is immediate. It is not a lottery ticket. nor a magic bullet.

Home Blessing

This morning MS and I and her sister together had Japanese lunch at Sushi Teh. Used the 2 reward point vouchers of $30 each (credit card coupons ). Lunch was $76 in total, had 5 different dishes.

Conducted a home blessing this evening at home of Gary, Rachel and their 3 year old son Joel.
They live in Jansen Road. Small cozy apartment, 2 levels.
The rest of the cell members were there - John & Emily, Shim Boon & Mabel, Emily.

The Slight Edge - "Some day" does not exist. There is only today. Your ship is already here. You already have the money, time, skill, and the confidence. You already have everything you need to achieve everything you want.


Friday, February 22, 2013

A Shift

TT some money over to Elson.
Shifted the masterbed into position, in our room now.

The Slight Edge gems - The secret of time. The right choices you make today, compounded over time, will take you higher up the success curve.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Dividend Growth Stocks

Bought this ebook for USD40 and started reading.
Planning to change my investment strategy for Dividend Growth Stocks.
This is long term investment commitment and requires discipline not to be influenced by the ups and downs of price fluctuations and market risks
Good ebook to read.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Think Long Term, Think Big


When people seriously undertake 
to identify what really matters
to most of them in their lives,
they become very reverent.
They start to think in larger terms
than today and tomorrow.

Video Shooting

Went to visit a video shooting for the Challenge Theatre.
The studio was at Jalan Peminpin, stayed there from 3 to 6pm.
First time for me to see such shooting in action. 

The Six Lessons I Live By


The Six Lessons I Live By - my wifey sent this to me. Good and simple advice and so I thought I keep it here for reference. 

by Ari Emanuel
Co-CEO at William Morris Endeavor

1. Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you and move out of their way.

If you feel like you know everything, you’re wrong. I know what I don’t know and then I find partners who can teach me. A perfect example is my partnership with Patrick Whitesell, my co-CEO at WME. While we take on different roles at the company and focus on different things, we share the same goals and at the end of the day, we’re working toward the same end. That’s been the key to our success.

2. The only constant in business is change. Get comfortable with it.

When I started in the business, there were four broadcast networks and 19 cable networks. Now there are five broadcast networks, 117 cable networks, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, HBOGo, iTunes, Amazon Prime, VOD – the list goes on and on. Next year there will be more distribution platforms, and in ten years the landscape will have shifted another 180 degrees. The business is changing quickly, and the only way to succeed is to change with it. I always tell my colleagues, there is no such thing as a traditional talent agent anymore. It’s about pushing beyond that 10% commission and finding opportunity where it didn’t exist before.

3. Fail often, fail quickly.

Nobody fucks up like I do, but you’ll never succeed unless you take risks. Big ones. In 2009, we took Endeavor, a company that was doing incredibly well, and merged it with the oldest talent agency in the world. From a cultural and organizational standpoint, it was a big risk. People had their doubts. But we had a vision and a lot of help from very smart people (see #1.) Three years later, our business is stronger, our bench is deeper and smarter, and our deal-making is more innovative. It’s a better company – period. You have to lead by example if you want to promote a culture where risk-taking is rewarded.

4. Your schedule makes you dumber.

Force yourself outside of your daily schedule. Be curious and take time to learn about worlds outside of the one you live in. Watch the news, read the paper, educate yourself. Don’t be afraid to call people you don’t know, start a conversation, and ask for things you need. At the very least, you’ll be more interesting. At the most, you’ll take your business in new and bigger directions.

5. You only get one shot – make it count.

I learned this the painful way. After being hit by a car and lying face-down in the middle of Wilshire Boulevard, I was confronted with a whole lot more than my mortality. Take advantage of each day that’s given to you and do something to move the needle on your business, even if it’s just an inch. You’ve heard it before, but life is not a dress rehearsal. Don’t waste your time (or mine.)

6. Good ideas rule all.

In the end, it’s all about creative ideas and content – it’s the lifeblood of our business. I’m fortunate enough to work with the writers, directors, musicians and actors who are defining culture with their voices. It’s why I come to work in the morning. In 100 years, when the world looks different, and we communicate in new ways, and we have more devices and platforms and distribution methods, I believe great artistry will still matter most.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Valentines Day

Valentines Day. Send an SMS to wish my wifey happy V Day.
This is such a over-rated and commercialized affair these days.
Everyday can be Valentines Day to you loved ones. We need to treasure one another's uniqueness more and not take each other for granted.

Here is a beautiful story told without a single word. Valentines Day can be like this. It's about your heart and passion for one another, not giving up and pursuing loved irrespective of the unfavourable circumstances.

Be Proactive. Create Your Own Experiences


If you are proactive,
you don't have to wait 
for circumstances or
other people to create
 perspective expanding experiences.
You can consciously
create your own.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Book: The Five People You Meet in Heaven


This is a remarkable book which I enjoyed thoroughly. It's only about 210 pages long and you can easily read it within a couple of days.


The novel opens at Ruby Pier on Eddie's 83rd birthday. He goes about his normal routine until one of the rides breaks. Eddie gives a fellow worker, Dominquez, instructions on how to fix the ride; however, one of the carts breaks free from the ride and falls to the pier. Eddie jumps out of the way and tries to push a little girl out of the path of the falling cart. Eddie does not get out of the way in time and is killed by the falling cart.

Eddie travels to heaven and meets his first person, the Blue Man. The Blue Man informs Eddie that he is going to meet five people in heaven whose lives he has somehow affected. The Blue Man tells Eddie how he is indirectly responsible for his death: When Eddie was a child, he and Joe were playing with a ball that bounced into the street. Eddie ran into the street to get the ball as the Blue Man was driving by. The Blue Man swerved out of the way, terrified that he would hit Eddie. Eddie ran safely back out of the street but the Blue Man was still extremely anxious having almost hit him. His anxiety caused him to drive recklessly and hit another car, which killed him. The Blue Man teaches Eddie his first lesson, which is that events are not random and lives intersect for a certain reason.

After this lesson, Eddie finds himself back on a war ground, which resembled that on which he fought during WWII. There, he meets his second person in heaven, his former war Captain. During WWII Eddie fought in the Philippines and he, the captain and a few other soldiers were taken as prisoners of war. Through a juggling act, Eddie is able to distract the captors so he and the other prisoners can kill them and escape. When they leave the camp, they decide to burn it down for revenge. Eddie swears he sees a small shadow crawling in the flames and runs in after it. The other soldiers tried to get Eddie out of the fire; however, he was so insistent that he saw a child in the fire that he kept trying to get in the hut. The Captain did not want Eddie to die, or to leave him behind, so he shot him in the leg so the others could get him out of the fire. This is how Eddie got the injury that made him very depressed for the rest of his life.


The Captain teaches Eddie the second lesson of sacrifice. Eddie finds out that the Captain died trying to make sure the path was clear for the rest of his men to cross. He says that he sacrificed Eddie's leg to get him out of the fire alive, and also that he sacrificed his own life to save the lives of Eddie and the soldiers.

Eddie then finds himself in a mountain range. He finds a single diner at the bottom of the mountains and through the window he can see his father sitting at a table. He meets Ruby who tells him that it is her for who the pier is named. She shows Eddie a horrifying scene where Mickey Shea almost hurt his mother; Eddie's father saw what happened and chased Mickey Shea to, possibly, kill him. Mickey falls off the pier into the sea and Eddie's father saves his life. This is the night where Eddie's father caught pneumonia which later killed him. Ruby allows Eddie to see that his father was being loyal to one of his best friends. Ruby teaches Eddie to let go of the anger he has for his father. Eddie does this by visiting him in the diner and telling him "It's fixed" (144).

Eddie blinks and finds himself in a room whose doors lead to different wedding receptions. Eddie walks through the different receptions and meets his fourth person, Marguerite. She and Eddie talk for a long while, as this is the first time they have been reunited since her death. For his fourth lesson, Marguerite teaches Eddie about the power of love; she states that even though people pass away, their love does not die. Marguerite tells Eddie that she loved him even after her death and that true love endures forever.

The final person Eddie meets in heaven is a young Asian girl, named Tala. Tala explains to Eddie that he killed her in a fire; Eddie realizes that he had seen a child in the burning hut in the Philippians during the War. Tala's skin suddenly becomes marked with burns and scars. Eddie washes her free of all her burns and injuries from the fire. For his last lesson, Tala allows Eddie to see that his place in life was to be at Ruby Pier keeping the children safe.

Lessons

"That there are no random acts. That We are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind".

 "We all have to make sacrifices. It is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not something to regret. It's something to aspire to; May it be little or big sacrifices."

"Holding anger is a poison. it eats you from inside. we think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves. no one is born with anger. we need to free ourselves from it. we need to forgive others and forgive ourselves."

"LOST LOVE IS STILL LOVE. It takes a different form. Life has to end but love doesn't. Love, like the rain, can nourish from above, drenching couples with a soaking joy. But sometimes, under the angry heat of life, love dries on the surface and must be nourish from below, tending to its roots, keeping itself alive."

Accomplished Several Tasks Today

Back to work today after 4 days of Lunar New Year holidays.

A few things I accomplished today:

1) Almost finished the Benchmarking and KM Committee Paper

2) Manage to get AP Menon as our moderator for the Leadership summit

3) Almost completed the Rental Income 2011 spreadsheet.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Keep Re-inventing


In business, the market is changing so rapidly
that many products and services
that successfully met customer tastes and needs
a few years ago are obsolete today.
Proactive, powerful leadership must
constantly monitor environmental change,
particularly customer buying habits and motives,
and provide the force
necessary to organise resources
in the right direction.

3Rd Day of Lunar New Year

We are still enjoying the public holiday today. Back to work and school tomorrow.
Nothing like relaxing with a good book.


Did some gardening. Harold went off to do his part time work.
Had steam boat dinner together.

Went for a run in the evening.

Monday, February 11, 2013

HOW DO YOU EAT AN ELEPHANT?



YES! One bite at a time. We all know the saying, but we often fail to apply this lesson in our lives.

Here's the story -

Once upon a time there was a mouse named Strauss who lived in a little bakery in a little village in a little country. Strauss lived a good life by mouse standards, and mice only have three standards. One, get enough to eat. Two, find a safe place to live, and three, make enough friends that you’re not lonely but not so many that you’re overwhelmed.

Strauss had as many friends as he cared to have, but he didn’t have to share the bakery with any of them on account of they were all afraid of the baker who had a reputation for swatting mice. It’s not that the baker was a mean person, but he did have a business to run after all, and it wouldn’t do to have mice nibbling holes in the treats you’re trying to sell. The baker was well aware of Strauss to be sure, but since Strauss left the baker’s goods alone and only ate the crumbs that fell on the floor the baker left him alone in return.

Even though Strauss had everything he needed, he still had big dreams…big mouse dreams that is. He longed to eat an entire bowl of pudding, or lick all the frosting off of a cake or suck the filling out of an entire tray of jelly doughnuts. Any one of those feats would make him the envy of all the mice in the village, and the stories of his conquest would inspire future generations of mice children. In fact, it just so happened that these were the things Strauss was dreaming about when he was woken up one morning by a commotion in the front of the bakery.

Still half asleep but curious, Strauss left his little mouse bed to investigate and was surprised to see a large group of children crowding around the center table in the dining area. Strauss crept along the wall until he found an angle where he could see what exactly all the fuss was about, and when he finally caught sight of it he let out a little mouse gasp. The baker had stayed up all night making a chocolate elephant the size of a large pumpkin. It was the most wonderful and delicious thing any mouse had ever seen.

In an instant Strauss forgot all about pudding, frosting and even doughnuts. This was his dream come true. He was so happy he could have cried until he remembered that he couldn’t eat the food on display or else he wouldn’t be able to stay in the bakery anymore. When Strauss realized that he was heartbroken.

But just then the group of children, who were all jostling each other to be at the front of the circle, lurched forward and bumped hard against the table. Then everybody froze as the elephant teetered back and forth once, twice, three times before tipping over and falling to the floor.

When it hit the ground its trunk broke off along with two of its legs, and wide crack split right down the middle of its back. It was the baker who ended the silence with an angry shout that sent all of the children scurrying out of the bakery like mice running from an alley cat.

The baker knelt down and fumbled with the pieces of the broken elephant. He tried to put them back into place, but the pieces wouldn’t stay together. So the baker piled them back onto the tray his masterpiece had fallen off of and started to carry it towards the garbage can. To Strauss’s surprise though, the baker only took two steps towards the garbage and stopped. He shifted his feet a few times as if he couldn’t decide which direction he wanted them to take him. Then he walked straight towards the hole in the wall that led to Strauss’s den, knelt down and sat the plate right in front of it.

Strauss watched the baker walk slowly back to the kitchen, and when the kitchen door shut behind him Strauss turned his gaze back to the elephant….the elephant the baker had given to him. Strauss was sad for the baker’s loss, but then again, the baker could always make another elephant. In fact, he was probably in the kitchen this minute preparing the ingredients for a new one. For Strauss though, this was a once in a lifetime dream come true.

Strauss raced to the elephant, leapt on its trunkless head and buried his face in the deep, delicious chocolate. He ate and ate and ate and ate until he couldn’t eat anymore. Then he fell asleep right there on the platter, exhausted from eating so much chocolate. When he woke up he tried eating some more, but there wasn’t any room in his stomach.

Strauss spent the rest of the day in his bed recovering from his battle with the elephant. As he lay there he thought about how impossible it would be to eat the entire elephant. Of course, if he didn’t it wouldn’t be the end of the world. Life would still go on, but this was his personal dream and his shot at greatness. If he gave up and let the opportunity pass by him he would have to live with that the rest of his life. With these thoughts in mind Strauss decided he was going to eat the entire elephant no matter how much work it took.

Over the next few days Strauss went back to the elephant and ate and ate and ate until he couldn’t eat anymore. Then he rested until he could eat some more and went back and ate and ate and ate again. The baker noticed what the mouse was doing and would make it a point to stop by every once and a while to check on his progress, but the baker wasn’t the only one to notice. Eventually the customers began to notice as well and would come to watch him. Then the rest of the mice in the village noticed how many people were coming to the bakery, and they came to watch the spectacle as well, but they didn’t go inside because they were still afraid of the baker.

In no time Strauss was the biggest attraction in town. The newspaper even printed a story on him, and after that people came from other villages to see the mouse who was trying to eat an elephant. People and mice began making bets as to whether or not Strauss could do it. Some people believed in him, and some people said he was a fool and his dream was impossible.

Strauss certainly had shown strength and determination, but he was only just finished eating the head when his strength and determination began to fade. He had been working very hard, but he wasn’t making the progress he thought he would have by now. Despite the early support he received the other mice were starting to doubt him, and he found this very discouraging. At any rate, he just didn’t know if he had the will power to finish such a daunting task. So as the days went by he ate less and less until he stopped eating at all. This caused a commotion, and some people as well as mice thought Strauss had finally failed. However, the baker did not remove the elephant because he believed in Strauss, and the spectacle was brining him a lot of business. The baker tried to encourage Strauss, but Strauss was incorrigible. The baker was smart though and knew just what Strauss needed. He put the elephant in the refrigerator and made Strauss a tiny bowl of warm soup with a tiny piece of warm bread. He closed the bakery for a few days and let Strauss relax.

After Strauss was feeling better the baker cut a little piece off of the elephant and put it on a golden plate in front of Strauss’s hole. When Strauss saw the little piece of chocolate he ate it hungrily, and after he had finished it he was still hungry because it was such a small piece. However, instead of giving Strauss any more chocolate that day he simply gave him a little piece of muffin and some milk.

The next day Strauss found another little piece of chocolate sitting on the golden plate in front of his hole. He ate that hungrily as well, but he didn’t get any more that day. The next day he got another small piece, and it this went on the same way for months and months until Strauss had finished the whole elephant.

On that day there was a big celebration, and the baker baked elephant cakes, elephant candies, elephant pastries, and another chocolate elephant twice as big as the first. People came from all around to have their picture taken with Strauss and the baker and the new chocolate elephant. The people who had bet against Strauss lost their money, but they weren’t all sad about it because they were happy for Strauss. Already the other mice in town began boasting to their children about how well they never doubted Strauss for a moment and what an inspiration he was to mice everywhere.

At the end of the day the baker shooed everyone out of the bakery and cleaned up all the mess they had made. To Strauss’s relief the baker had sold the second elephant to someone from out of town. The baker made Strauss some warm soup and laid some extra soft cotton at his hole for him to add to his nest. That night Strauss had the best sleep of his life.

Not long after that the baker took down the old sign that used to hang outside his bakery to one with a mouse eating an elephant. From then on any mouse who wanted to come to the bakery was allowed to come in without fear of being swatted, and none of them ever ate anything that wasn’t given to them.

As Strauss got older he would often have young mice come to visit him and listen to him tell the tale of how he ate an entire elephant, and when the young mice asked him how he did it he would smile a sly, jolly smile and say, “One bite at a time.”

And the lessons we can draw are:


It’s not just about big goals

Many people make a major mistake in being entirely focused on big goals. If your goal is to become a best-selling novelist, great. But that’s a really big goal. If you base too much of your life satisfaction on achieving it, you’ll be unhappy for a very long time (possibly your whole life).

Long term goals are great, because aiming high lets us strive to be the best we can be. But for every long term goal you have, you want to have many short and medium term goals. If being a best-selling novelist is your long term goal, what smaller goals can you come up with that you should achieve along the way? Maybe for now, you’d be happy to come up with an idea for a character you want to include in your first novel.

The beauty of small goals

When you have small goals like that, there are a couple of advantages. First, a small goal gives you something concrete to focus on. If you want to become a best-selling novelist, how will you make that happen? You can easily be overwhelmed by such a huge task. If you don’t know specifically what to do, you’re only going to get frustrated. As time goes by, you notice over and over that your goal still hasn’t been achieved, yet you’re not sure what to do about it. But it’s a lot easier to come up with an idea for a character. When you know exactly what to do, you’re much more likely to take inspired action.

Second, you enjoy the satisfaction of achieving a goal and enjoying the benefits. Even if it’s a small goal, you feel good for checking it off your to-do list (whether it’s on paper or just in your head). You also get to have something that brings a little satisfaction right now. When you have your idea for a character, that in itself means something, even though you have a long way to go to your ultimate goal.

Life is a journey, not a destination

Your life satisfaction will probably be a lot higher if you view your life as a series of many small milestones, instead of one huge milestone that you may or may not ever achieve. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t have big goals, only that you should also have smaller ones to focus on along the way.
If you want to lose 40 pounds, great. But don’t just focus on that one huge goal. If you do, then every time you get on the scale, you’re only going to notice that you haven’t achieved your goal yet, and so you continually reinforce failure in your mind.

So break it down into smaller goals. There are plenty of goals you can try to accomplish even before losing 1 pound. Maybe you want to read a book about weight loss, or find a support group, or learn a new healthy recipe. A series of small accomplishments will keep you on track and make you feel good about your life, whether or not you eventually go on to accomplish your ultimate goal. If you end up eating the whole elephant, that’s wonderful. But don’t forget to enjoy the bites along the way.


Parenting Goals


Too often parents are trapped
in the management paradigm,
thinking of control, efficiency, and roles
instead of direction,
purpose, and
family feeling

Psy and Celine Dion at Shanghai Spring Festival 2013

Watch: Psy blows Celine Dion out of the water at Shanghai Spring Festival Gala



Also Watch: Celine Dion sings in Mandarin at CCTV Spring Festival Gala

Day 2 Lunar New Year

Rather quiet day. Catch upon some house work.

Did some handy man work. Replaster a part of the wall in bedroom and study room.





Tidied up garden. Trimmed dried leaves.

And catching up with some reading ....one of my favourite past-time.


Happy holidays!



Sunday, February 10, 2013

Lunar New Year Decorations

For us we have rather simple decorations in and outside the house.








The flowers in the garden were also cooperative. There are many blooms and they add to the colour and beauty to start the new year.









Lunar New Year 2013

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year 2013. The Chinese calendar refers to this year as the year of the water snake. Here in Singapore, it is a rather gloomy day. In fact, it started raining at about 12 noon.

It's nice and cool but not so good for those visiting family and friends on this auspicious day. We didn't visit anyone this year after my wifey's dad pass away in March 2012.




Living With Change


People can't live with change
if there is not a changeless core within them.
The key to the ability to change 
is a changeless sense of who you are,
what you are about,
and what you value.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

A Simple Reunion Dinner with Family

Re-union dinner this year, we had it at the porch outside the house. It was fun, all 17 of us got to sit on one table and it was a great dinner. It was a simple pot-luck dinner where each family brought something. We had yu sheng, soya sauce duck, prawn batter with bread, curry chicken with french loaf, belachan fried kankong, chinese cabbage and seafood soup, meat roll and a steam fish. For dessert, it was agar agar.

This is the first time all our parents are not with us as our father passed away in March 2012. Treasure your parents when they are around and their fond memories will live on even when they are gone.

Wishing all a Blessed and Happy Lunar New Year!









Watch this 15 min clip on Reunion Dinner. Reminded me of my childhood days.


Week 4 - Review

Flu took about a week because it really gets killed.

Took MC on Monday.

Skipped LCEC mtg on Tue to rest at home.

Continue home packing.


Memories


Re-arranging for more space.

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